Poor time management - friend or foe?

By - Tina Coleman

Editors Note - ok not editor - just blog poster (Teresa) - Tina in no way let her training partner aka "me" down on Sunday! She is being way too hard on herself but the blog message is awesome!

"The sound of my cell phone ringing woke me up on Sunday morning. I sat up from the couch in a panic. Blurry eyed, I frantically began scanning the room for a clock or watch; anything that might tell me I didn’t oversleep, again. I stumbled to the kitchen table where I had my cell phone laid out next to my iPod, Garmin and hydration belt. 9:03, crap. Missed call from Teresa Moffatt, crap. I did it again. Why do my friends even bother with me? I do this all the time, no really, all the time. I grab my phone and run to the bathroom, I am texting my training partner as I’m, well, using the bathroom. Partner decided to head out without me which means I would have to do the run on my own. Crap.

So what do I do now? On one hand, I am still groggy and don’t want to run. On the other hand, a 4 mile run is on the plan. ON THE PLAN. The Black Diamond Olympic Distance Training Plan. Of course there are times when you can’t stick to the plan, things come up; kids, illness, work, and schedule conflicts; oversleeping is not one of them. Plus my training partner is out on the Lake Wilderness Trail all by herself and what kind of athlete would I be if I skipped out on myself? So slowly I began to get dressed and I even got my husband and dog to go with me. Granted, they would only be doing a 30 min walk, but still he helped me get out the door. You see, I don’t even have to drive to get to a trail. I live on the North end of the Soos Creek Trail. No excuses.

The day before I had set my Garmin for a 2 minute run, 1 minute walk for 20 reps. That would give me 60 minutes to do 4 miles. I can do that, it will be hard but I think I can pull it off. I’ve never done the 2/1 for longer than 2 miles so the doubts start rolling through my head. “I can always walk more if I need to.” “This is my first training run so I’ll take it slow.” “Oh, what is that twinge in my knee? Maybe I should just walk for 4 miles; I don’t want to hurt myself.” On and on and on came all the reasons to not run or push myself. I get to Gary Grant Park and my husband stops and begins to turn around to walk back home. I tell him that since he will be home before me, he should start breakfast and get the bacon and potatoes going. I stop for a few minutes at the stretching post and actually stretch, I’m still stalling you see. I don’t know when I really decided how I was going to tackle this workout; I don’t think I actually did. Anyway, I go to start my Garmin and realize that it is only going to track my 2/1 and reps, not my mileage. The trail start at Gary Grant is right before the .5 mile marker, so I knew I had to keep an eye out for the 2.5 mile marker and turn around.

I hit start and was on my way. 2 minute run, 1 minute walk, 2 minute run, 1 minute walk; etc. I had no idea what my pace was because the face on my Garmin was not showing me. I was just going hard and hoping I was averaging a 15min/mile pace. I didn’t feel like I was; I felt so heavy and slow. When I hit the 1.5 mile marker I was trying to do the math to figure out my pace. I can’t do much else when I’m running, let alone math, so I still had no idea what my pace was.

Finally the 2.5 mile marker and I turn around. My Garmin says I’ve completed 9 reps. 9x3=27 minutes. That would mean a 13:30 mile/minute average. There’s no way. Stupid Garmin.

At about mile 3 I text my husband and tell him PLEASE BOIL ME TWO EGSS. NO BACON. I AM FAT. THIS IS REALLY HARD.

Still plugging along at my 2 run 1 walk, I am finally at the last .5 of my journey. I look back down at my Garmin and it says I have 4 reps left. How can this be? Maybe I turned around too soon? Maybe it was an old mile marker I was looking at. Who knows and I think to myself, it is what it is and I need to finish strong. Let’s see if I can do this last .5 in 6 minutes. I want to try and beat my Garmin so that I have 2 full reps/6 minutes left. So I run HARD for 2 minutes, walk for 1 and run hard for the last 3 minutes. I DID IT.

It was my own little victory. But I still didn’t believe that I had done 4 miles. I was just so excited that I did that last half mile at a 12min/mile pace. As I started my walk home/cool down it started to pour down rain. It was really coming down so I decided to sit under the covered picnic area and wait for the rain to pass. I played with my Garmin and found out the following.

I completed 4.06 miles in 54 minutes, average pace 13.18. WHAT??? When I looked at my lap details I averaged my 2 minute runs in the 10-11 min/mile range and my walks were in the 17-18 min/mile range. I love my Garmin. I was happy.

Several thoughts came to mind that Sunday.

Set your alarm and get your butt up when your friends are expecting you.
Even when you let someone down, don’t continue the trend and let yourself down too.
Do what your plan says even if you don’t feel like it. Just do it, you may surprise yourself.
I wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren’t for this team.
I am excited to do this Olympic distance in September. Like my training partner says “I know the Oly will be great…If we survive the training.”
13.18 min/mile may be slow for most but it was fast for me that day and that’s what matters.
I need to become a faster walker.
A chocolate Accel Gel is 2 points on WW.
I am grateful for the physical and mental strength as well as the motivation to keep at this.
Stretch AFTER you run as well as before.


The rain didn’t stop and was only getting heavier, so I called my husband to come pick me up. A swim was not on THE PLAN."